Tank fires on Palastinians injuring 14

At least 14 people were injured today when Israeli tanks fired on a Palestinian-controlled area outside Jerusalem.

The tanks fired shells at gunmen who had been shooting at Israeli motorists, witnesses said today.

A five-year-old Palestinian boy was seriously hurt.

The most intense exchange of fire broke out in Beit Jalla, near the southern edge of Jerusalem, but shooting also erupted elsewhere in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

In Israel, an explosion went off in Petach Tikva, near Tel Aviv, injuring one woman lightly. The Israeli army said that what appeared to be mortar shells landed near the town of Sderot, just outside the Gaza Strip.

In Beit Jalla, the Israeli army said it fired tank shells toward the Palestinian gunmen, who were shooting at a road linking Jerusalem to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Israeli paratroopers entered the Palestinian-controlled town to counter the ‘‘massive’’ shooting coming from inside the town, military sources said.

Makram al-Arja, a Palestinian living in Beit Jalla, said he saw several Israeli tanks advance several hundred yards into the town and open fire.

The Israeli army has briefly entered Palestinian-controlled areas on several occasions in the past month in response to Palestinian attacks. The moves have drawn international criticism, and the Israelis have withdrawn in each instance.

Palestinian gunmen in the town have repeatedly fired on the nearby Jewish neighbourhood of Gilo, several hundred yards across a valley, on land captured from Jordan in the 1967 and later annexed and declared part of Jerusalem.

The gunbattle came a day after the killing in nearby Bethlehem of a local leader of the radical Muslim group Islamic Jihad. According to the Palestinians, Ahmed Khalil Assad, 37, died from multiple gunshot wounds fired by Israeli soldiers from a nearby hill.

Israel did not say whether it was responsible for the killing. However, the action bore the hallmarks of other ‘‘pinpoint attacks’’ that the military has carried out in recent months against suspected Palestinian militants.

Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called on Saturday for a Mideast summit to discuss the findings of the US-led Mitchell Commission that has been investigating the violence. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel would only agree to such a summit once the violence ends.

‘‘It can’t happen as long as there is still shooting. Either there is shooting or there are talks,’’ Peres said in an interview with Israel’s Channel Two Television.

The Mitchell Commission submitted a draft of its report on Friday. It did not blame either side for igniting the fighting, but called on both parties to work for an end to the violence.

The draft said Israel should freeze construction on settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but did not recommend sending an international force to the region, as Palestinians have been demanding.

Each side blames the other for the more than seven months of bloodshed that has claimed the lives of 433 people on the Palestinian side and 72 people on the Israeli side.